Post by TheShadow on Aug 6, 2011 1:39:50 GMT -5
www.sfgate.com/
Charles McCabe, Esq.
Those of you out in the loving void who still think pro football is a sport might give a bit of thought to the remarkable financial shenanigans centering on the Oakland Raiders.
The Raiders (nee, the Senors) are about as popular with East Bay football fans as Typhoid Mary. When they play at Kezar, you could discharge a brace of artillery salvos without fear of hitting anyone. This year they sold a mere 3,250 season tickets, lowest in their league. The team is the Little Orphan Annie of pro football.
Wha hoppen? The team started the 1961 season by losing 55-0. In their second game, they staged a remarkable recovery and lost by 44-0. The owners promptly fired their coach, Eddie Erdelatz, and got a prodigious amount of free ink in the journals. Last week the team lost again, but this time almost gloriously, 42-35. Their loss to Dallas so elated the East Bay daily that it became "the biggest upset of this young American League season."
Why haven't the Raiders made it? The air is blue with explanations. They can't compete with the 49ers. Oakland is a bush town. The games have to be played in San Francisco because the East Bay has no stadium. Etc., etc.
In each of these contentions - especially etc., etc. - there is a certain merit. But I have my own theory. The Raiders were ruined by those qualities that made our country great: sound business and management principles. Or, as some might put it, plain stinginess.
When the Raiders were formed, the 10 owners were trumpeted as "sound, hard-nosed businessmen." There is little doubt they knew the value of a buck. One of them, for instance, was that philanthropist of sport, Mr. Charles Harney, the builder of Candlestick Park. In 1960, the Raiders stood 6-8, or remarkably good, considering. They also lost an estimated $400,000. This was a clear warning to seven of the hard-nosed ones, including Mr. Harney. They pulled out of the misbegotten thing, and left the team in the hands of three East Bay hard noses.
The new owners made it clear to coach Erdelatz that they were running the team, like in business. When the coach put certain players on waivers, the owners overruled him. The coach fired one player twice, but he is still around. Worst of all, the owners - acting on the sound business principle of penury - signed only one of their top 12 draft choices. Top draft choices cost money. Their business-like move almost automatically ensured a lousy team.
Now the East Bay populace is in a swivet. The owners are putting the blame for the fiasco on the fans for non-attendance. They threaten to sell the franchise to some worthier municipality, like Memphis or Portland.
If Oakland ends without a football team next year, I think the town can properly blame the financial astuteness of owners Wayne Valley, Ed McGah and Robert Osborne. No? {sbox}
This column originally appeared in The Chronicle on Sept. 28, 1961.
Charles McCabe, Esq.
Those of you out in the loving void who still think pro football is a sport might give a bit of thought to the remarkable financial shenanigans centering on the Oakland Raiders.
The Raiders (nee, the Senors) are about as popular with East Bay football fans as Typhoid Mary. When they play at Kezar, you could discharge a brace of artillery salvos without fear of hitting anyone. This year they sold a mere 3,250 season tickets, lowest in their league. The team is the Little Orphan Annie of pro football.
Wha hoppen? The team started the 1961 season by losing 55-0. In their second game, they staged a remarkable recovery and lost by 44-0. The owners promptly fired their coach, Eddie Erdelatz, and got a prodigious amount of free ink in the journals. Last week the team lost again, but this time almost gloriously, 42-35. Their loss to Dallas so elated the East Bay daily that it became "the biggest upset of this young American League season."
Why haven't the Raiders made it? The air is blue with explanations. They can't compete with the 49ers. Oakland is a bush town. The games have to be played in San Francisco because the East Bay has no stadium. Etc., etc.
In each of these contentions - especially etc., etc. - there is a certain merit. But I have my own theory. The Raiders were ruined by those qualities that made our country great: sound business and management principles. Or, as some might put it, plain stinginess.
When the Raiders were formed, the 10 owners were trumpeted as "sound, hard-nosed businessmen." There is little doubt they knew the value of a buck. One of them, for instance, was that philanthropist of sport, Mr. Charles Harney, the builder of Candlestick Park. In 1960, the Raiders stood 6-8, or remarkably good, considering. They also lost an estimated $400,000. This was a clear warning to seven of the hard-nosed ones, including Mr. Harney. They pulled out of the misbegotten thing, and left the team in the hands of three East Bay hard noses.
The new owners made it clear to coach Erdelatz that they were running the team, like in business. When the coach put certain players on waivers, the owners overruled him. The coach fired one player twice, but he is still around. Worst of all, the owners - acting on the sound business principle of penury - signed only one of their top 12 draft choices. Top draft choices cost money. Their business-like move almost automatically ensured a lousy team.
Now the East Bay populace is in a swivet. The owners are putting the blame for the fiasco on the fans for non-attendance. They threaten to sell the franchise to some worthier municipality, like Memphis or Portland.
If Oakland ends without a football team next year, I think the town can properly blame the financial astuteness of owners Wayne Valley, Ed McGah and Robert Osborne. No? {sbox}
This column originally appeared in The Chronicle on Sept. 28, 1961.